Blooming healthy

Credit: Emmy Lai, City of Richmond

Richmond’s demonstration gardens nurture healthy lifestyles

You want to reduce water consumption, but your garden is thirsty. To find out how to meet both needs, you check a book or website, or ask your local nursery. But Richmond residents have another option: they visit the City’s demonstration gardens at Terra Nova Rural Park to see healthy gardening in bloom.

Three demonstration beds, located at the entrance to the community gardens section of the park, are used to test applications, as well as to inspire and educate Richmond gardeners about healthy, organic gardening. Residents learn first-hand why gardens where safe alternatives to pesticides are used are desirable and effective, observe how a low-flow irrigation system works and discover the hardiness of native plants. The beds are also used in a series of free healthy gardening workshops held in the growing season.

The demonstration gardens are just one of the ways the City fosters a healthy lifestyle among its citizens, and why Richmond has been named one of the most livable communities in the world.

The City of Richmond is a partner in the PlantHealthBC program.